Lubricating apparatus



F. s. BARKS arm. 2,298,920

LUBRICATING APPARATUS Filed May 10, 1940 Oct. 13, 1942.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1- FIG.4.

FIGI.

Patented Oct. 13,1942

2,298,920 LUnmcArmG APPARATUS v Frank s. Barks and Victor G. Klein, St. Louis,

, 'Mo., assignors to Lincoln Engineering Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application May 1940, Serial No. 334,423

5 Claims. (Cl. 221-471) 1 This invention relates to lubricating apparatus, and with regard to certain more specificfeatures, to lubricating pumps.

Among the. several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a lubricant pump 1 and cover, for application to various lubricant containers for emptying purposes; the provision of a pump having means for eifecting a complete and positive prime without-requiring a return to the supply of a part of the priming charge; the provision of a pump of the classy described which may be used substantially to empty a container either with or without a lubricant follower; and the provision of a pump of thisclass which includes a simplified doubleaction cycle.

.vious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

Other objects will be in part ob- The invention is an improvement upon the constructions shown in United States Patent 2,122,020 of Frank S. Barks, dated June 28, 1938.

and United States Patent 2,136,636 of Lutwin C. Rotter, dated November 15, 1938. The invention accordingly comprises 'the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of partswhich will be exemplified in the structures hereinafter described, and the. scope of the application of i which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which is illustrated one of various possible embodiments of the invention,

Fig. 1 is aside elevation, parts being broken away to show a cross section;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section showing certain pump parts; i

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing an alternative form of the invention;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary elevation of certain engine parts within a broken-away corner,

shown at right angles to Fig. 1; and,

' Fig. 5 is a horizontal section taken on line 5-4 of Fig. 2.

. Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of.

plification is accomplished.

Referring now more particularly to Fig. 1,

there is shown at numeral a platform which This may be carried on casters 3 or the-like.

platform is for the purpose of supporting a commercial lubricant container 5. It is an object65 of the invention to empty the container by directly inserting therein the lance portion of a lubricant pump.

The pump is carried within a cover and support 1 which is detachably held by fastenings 9- onthe platform I. The bell-shaped member 1 is fastened to a pump outlet housing H by means of bolts i3. The housing carries a reciprocating air-engine cylinder I5, further details ofwhich it isunnecessary to describe herein, because it is of a known type for the purpose. Its air inlet connection is shown at l1 and the cover therefor at i9. In Fig. 4 its valve case is shown at l8 with connections Hand 22 to opposite ends of the air cylinder. Its driving piston is shown at 35.

Fastened into the lower end of the housing II- is a transmission tube 2| of a lance-type of pump operated by the piston 35. This tube and attached parts are adapted to be thrust into the opening 23 of the lubricant container 5. The inside of the cylinder 2| communicates through housing H with a lubricant outlet 25 to which is attached a suitable valved hose (not shown).

The lubricant pump is detailed in Fig. 2, and comprises a piston rod 21, which is made in three sections 29, 3| and 33 extending from the piston 35 of the air engine l5. Only the section 29 passes through a packing gland 28, the parts 3| and 33 being extensions through the transmission tube or cylinder 2|. Reciprocation in the usual way of the piston 35 resultsin reciprocation of the piston rod parts 29, 3| and 3 3.

The rod extension 3| is hollow as indicated at 31 for effecting a lost-motion connection with a head 39 of a valve stem 42. The valve stem 42 passes through the hollow portion of 29 and 35 to the valve gear of the engine i5, whereby the valve gear is reset at the ends of the stroke of piston 35, so as to reverse piston movement. The action is due to cooperation between the head 39 and the ends of 31. Lost-motion valveoperating arrangements being known in the art, further description is not herein made.

The lower end .of the transmission cylinder 2| has threaded thereto a pump cylinder 4| in which reciprocates a pump piston or plunger 43, thelatter being threaded at the lowerend of the lowermost rod extension 33. The piston 43 is hollow, its lower end including a ball check valve 45 and having at its upper end a second ball-check valve 41. Both of the valves will transmit lubricant upwardly but will prevent valve sticking due to :foreign material. The outlet of each valve is covered by a. grid member 49 which permits lubricant to pass when the valve is open and holds the ball portion prisoner. The outlet of the upper valve is shown at 5| and communicates with the interior of the transmission cylinder 2 I.

The cylinder 4| has a lower dead end- 51 and at a region spaced from this end is provided with inlet openings 53. This makes a priming cup out of the cylinder parts below the openings 53. These openings are uncovered by upward movement of the plunger 43. The vacuum thus drawn under the plunger in the dead end 51 results in an inrush of fluid into the openings 53 to fill the empty inner chamber 55. Then upon downward movement of the piston plunger 43, a priming charge of lubricant isltrapped in the, chamber 55 and positively forced by compression through the valves 45 and 41 to a position within the transmission cylinder 2|. None flows back to the source.

The area of the cross section at A of the plunger 43 is substantially twice that of the area of cross section at B of the piston rod member 29. Thus, upon the downstroke, after closure of ports 53, lubricant is simply transferred from' the chamber 55 through the check valves 45 and 41 to a point in the cylinder 21 and above plunger 43, The intrusive action of the rod with section B sends out a charge through the outlet 25. Hence on the downstroke the plunger 43 does not cause direct discharge to the outlet, but the rod 29 does.

Upon an upward stroke, the volume lost by outward movement of the red 29 (of section B) is made up for by the fact that the plunger 43 (of section A) delivers enough charge to make up for this loss of volume, and also enough to force out a charge from outlet 25. In other words, the volumetric displacement of the plunger 43 is about twice that of the rod 29. Upon the downstroke of plunger 43, it simply moves from a position above the next priming charge to a position below that charge. The ratio of 2:1 above mentioned need only be substantial in order to obtain substantially the same amount of fluid from the outlet 25 upon each pulsation. It will be understood that the fact that the plunger 43 crosses the inlet 53 in moving downwardly causes some unbalance in this respect, but if desired, this can be corrected by suitably adjusting the ratio of the values of cross sections A and B.

This consitutes an improvement upon said Barks Patent 2,122,020 and the said Rotter Patent 2,136,636, in avoiding passage of some of the priming charge back to the lubricant supply. The present construction is also simpler.

Since the inlets 53 are spaced some distance from dead end 51, and it is desired to empty a lubricant barrel substantially completely, there is provided a skirt 59 which is threaded upon a collar 6| held in place by a set screw 63 and sealed by packing 62. The lower end of the skirt 59 is notched with inlets as shown at 55. The skirt 53 functions as a tube whose inlet 65 is near the bottom of a container, which will act as a guide lift for fluid up to the inlet 53. This occurs due drawn through the openings 53, the level of the I to accommodate insertion of a follower piston. Some'lubricant containers are large enough for this purpose, as shown in Fig. 3. In this case the large opening is shown at numeral 51.

The sleeve skirt 59 in this case is again threaded to a collar 51 having a sliding packing 52, but in this case the collar 5| slides and is not held by any set screw.

Sliding on the outside of the tube 59 is a second collar 11 upon which is threaded a follower piston 13. This piston 13 extends out to a point near the cylindric inner surface of the drum 5.

Assuming the lubricant to be grease in the barrel 5 (Fig. 3), when the cylinder 21 is inserted, the follower 13 is held upon the top of the grease, and the tube 59 pierces through the grease, as shown. Then as lubricant is withlubricant descends and the follower 13 prevents air cratering. The follower descends as the lubricant level descends, and so also does the cylinder 59, until finally the lower end of the cylinder rests upon the bottom 2 of'the tank 5 and ensures the substantially complete emptying of lubricant. At this stage the continued air pressure and emptying sends the follower 13 downward from the top to the bottom of skirt 59, so that the collar 1| slides down to a stop 15, quite near the bottom of the container. Thus, there is assurance not only of substantially complete emptying of the container, but also follower action substantially to the bottom.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained,

As many changes could be made in the above I constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

We claim: v

1. A double-acting pump comprisin a. pump cylinder having reception inlets spaced from a dead end, a co-axial transmission cylinder supporting the pump cylinder, a hollow plunger in the pump cylinder, a check valve opening in a direction for movement of fluid only from said dead end through the plunger to the transmis-- sion cylinder, said transmission cylinder having an outlet at the end opposite the pump, apiston rod reciprocating into and out of the transmission cylinder and connected to said plunger, the cross-sectional area of the outside of the plunger being substantially twice that of the outside of said rod at the point where it enters the transmission cylinder, a cylindric sleeve spaced from the pump cylinder and covering said suction inlet and having an inlet opening spaced from said suction inlet, said sleeve being slidable on to atmospheric pressure acting on the surface of like parts. In the case of Fig, 1, the opening 23 of the lubricant container 5 is not large enough said transmission cylinder, and a follower slidable on the sleeve.

2. A pump comprising a cylinder havlng at least one suction port spaced from a dead end, a sleeve enclosed at one end and slidably sealed to said cylinder and adapted spacedly to cover said suction port, said sleeve having at least one inlet opening at its other end, said last-named opening being movable with respect to said dead end, and a follower slidable on said sleeve and movable from an upper point thereon to a point near said inlet opening.

3. A lance type of pump for containers of various depths comprising a pump cylinder of fixed length for insertion into container and having at least one suction port space from a dead lower end, a sleeve which at its upper portion slides with respect to the pump cylinder, said upper portion being slidingly sealed to said cylinder to form a suction-tight sliding connection above said port, the portion of the sleeve below the sliding seal being spaced from the pump cylinder, the lower end of said sleeve being movable toward engagement with the bottoms of containers of various lengths while said upper vportion of the sleeve maintains saidsliding seal with respect to the cylinder above the suction port, said sleeve being open endwise at its hottom and having at least one side inlet at its lower end forming an extension from said endwise opening, whereby material may be withdrawn substantially down to the bottom of thecontaine'r without said'pump losing prime through the slidable seal between the pump cylinder and said sleeve.

4. A lance type of pump for containers of various depths comprising a pump cylinder of fixed length for insertion into the containers and having at least one lateral suction port spaced from a lower dead end, a sliding sleeve around said cylinder and spaced therefrom, which sleeve at its upper end is closed and at itslower end is open, packing means carried by the sleeve and located between said sleeve and the cylinder at said closed upper end of the sleeve, said packing means insuring a seal at any position of the sleeve on the cylinder, the seal being always above the suction port, said lower open end of i the sleeve being movable toward juxtaposition lengths.

with the bottoms of the containers of various 5. A double acting pump, comprising a pump cylinder having a dead end and a, reception inlet spaced from said deadend, thereby providing a. priming cup between said inlet and said dead end,

' a transmission cylinder in coaxial communication from the container through said suction port at one end with the pump cylinder, a hollow plunger crossing the inlet, a check valve permitting movement of fluid from the priming cup only through the plunger to the transmiss on cylinder, said transmission cylinder having a fluid outlet, and a piston rod attached to said hollow plunger and passing through said transmission cylinder, the piston rod being ported so that in all positions the rod forms a communicatlon between the hollow plunger and the transmission cylinder, the transmission cylinder at itsother end having a sliding sealing connection with the piston rod, the area of the outer cross section 01 the. plunger being greater by a ratio r or substantially 2:1 than that of the outer cross section or the piston rod in the region where the piston rod reciprocates into and out of the transmission cylinder.

FRANK S. BARKS. VICTOR G. KLEIN. 

